Jude 1:16-23
16 These people are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.
17 But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold.
18 They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.”
19 These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.
20 But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit,
21 keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.
22 Be merciful to those who doubt;
23 Save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.
Have you ever heard people come to church and complain about things that happen that they do not like or people in the church that did something they did not like?
Jude noticed that their methods all revolved around words. They were a people of deception, departing from the foundation of Jesus Christ, and the apostles and prophets.
I have observed over the years that when people get out of touch with God, they are more likely to begin complaining about something. One commentary writer said that “it is to insult God who gives us all things.”
Mom was telling me about a man who had gotten upset about something that had happened at church. He was going to quit the church and go somewhere else. When he got home and started to think about it, he told his wife that instead of quitting right away that they were going to go for everything the church had for a month and see what happened. They went to every service, men’s meeting, ladies meeting, and anything else that the church had. And they had spent a lot of time on their knees praying and when the month was up, they had decided that they were in the wrong and not the church.
We must learn that in everything we do we must pray to God for the answers and help we need.
Also, Jude goes on to talk about people that use flattery. These kinds of people are using words to get an advantage over other people. We now often call them con men. These kinds of people are often time’s the ones that can talk you into things that you normally would do.
Then people do spend time together in church trying to convince you that they have the ultimate upper hand. They will make you believe whatever they want you to believe to get what they want.
If you are going through a tough time, then I want to give you four things that Jude gives us to help.
- Build Your Faith
We all know that a body builder does not get all their muscles just because they decided they wanted to build their body. A body builder must spend time building the muscles he wants to build. He must go to the gym continuously to build what he wants.
For us as Christians our faith must be built. Now the question may be how do we build that faith? I read about a preacher that wanted to build his faith. He wanted to see people healed when he prayed for them. So, he started out by praying for a common sniffle. He prayed repeatedly and once the prayer was finally answered he moved on a cold and built his faith more every time a prayer was answered.
Remember we already have a measure of faith if we are Christians. We must have faith in Jesus that He was here on earth and died for our sins.
- Discipline Ourselves in Prayer
We need to discipline ourselves to be in prayer a lot. One thing that I have had to learned is to be more disciplined in my prayer time. Meaning I need to set a time to pray no matter what.
It seems in our everyday lives we have a tough time spend a few minutes in prayer in the morning or at night or both. We need to pray to talk to God and for Him to know us. Set that prayer time and try to make sure you are praying at least once every day.
- Keeping Yourself in God’s Love
To keep ourselves in God’s Love we must love Him. God’s love is all around us and nothing can separate us from that love. However, we can separate ourselves from God.
We not only have to keep God’s love in Him, but also in others. God is love and He expects us to love others. If we do not love God, we cannot reap His benefits.
- Being Patient
For some it is extremely hard to learn patience. I do not know about you all, but I do not like to wait for something I want. Have you ever wanted something so bad that it was so tempting to go out and get it before you saved the money for it.
God is patient with us, and I am so glad He is. I am a slow learner at times and God continues to love me even though it takes me a while to get in sink and do what He wants.
When we are going through a hard or tough time in our life, we must learn to be patient and wait upon the Lord. God will do things in His time not ours. In verse 20 Jude says to be praying in the Holy Spirit.
We are Christian people that believe in Acts 2 of being filled with the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues. Jude says to be praying in the Holy Spirit. This is because there are times that we are not fighting a physical battle, but a spiritual battle against Satan.